Good afternoon,
As you might have noticed, the seemingly endless stream ratings of Delaware’s economy draw varied responses depending on one’s political and economic leanings.
A bad rating will always draw notice from critics of Democrats – the party that has dominated both the legislative and executive branch in Delaware for decades.
A high rating will be embraced by Dems or others who believe that dwelling on the negatives only emboldens other economic development groups that want to take away Delaware jobs.
It won’t be hard to guess which side of the spectrum will embrace the latest report from the Business Insider website.
The site measured unemployment, job growth, GDP per capita, GDP growth, average wages, and wage growth in ranking Delaware a surprising 14thoverall.
That’s a marked contrast to other reports that have ranked the state in the bottom tier, one of the most recent being the annual ranking from CNBC. In that report, Delaware’s ranking remains in the low-30s.
The difference is that the Business Insider ranking did not take into account utility costs, cost of living, taxes, education and other areas of interest to business.
None of this means the measurements used by Business Insider are bogus.
In the ranking of 50 states and D.C., the Delaware economy showed an impressive level of productivity that should be an economic development talking point. Per capita GDP (the value of goods and services) ranked fourth from the top and growth in GDP came in sixth.
The ranking will be dismissed by some because Business Insider leans to the left.
The Business Insider list may be skewed, since it does not look at a large number of factors. Still, the ranking offers evidence that Delaware is a long way from being the economic basket case.
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